Building maintenance staff and others often clean dirty surfaces, such as restroom floors, using traditional mop and bucket assemblies. The bucket may include a detachable mop ringer and may be positioned on caster wheels to facilitate easy movement. Depending on the cleanliness of the equipment, a worker may be able to make a good start in cleaning a floor using the mop and bucket approach. However, soon the mop and fluid in the bucket becomes soiled or otherwise contaminated by such as germs and bacteria. From that point on, each time the worker plunges the mop into the bucket and rings the mop, both the mop and cleaning fluid become more and more dirty/contaminated. In the end, a dirty surface gets “cleaned” by pushing dirty and potentially disease or germ contaminated water over the surface to be cleaned with a dirty and/or contaminated mop. In short, the surface remains wet with contaminated solution.
These basic cleaning problems have generally been addressed by provision of a multi-functional cleaning machine, such as the machine disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,206,980 to Robinson, entitled “Multi-functional Cleaning Machine,” which is fully incorporated herein by reference. This type of cleaning machine generally includes a wheeled body with two tanks, one concentrated chemical receptacle, a vacuum and blower motor, and a fluid pumping system. Typically, such equipment includes only a single motor used for both vacuuming and blowing. Such a motor may include an air intake and an air outlet. The cleaning equipment also generally includes a tube connectable to either the air outlet or air inlet of that motor. When connected to the air outlet, air is forced down the tube for use in blow drying surfaces. When connected to the air inlet, a vacuum is created inside the tube, facilitating suctioning of fluid, which is generally dirty/contaminated, from the surface. In either case, however, the blower motor is always fixedly secured to and/or incorporated into the cleaning machine.
One of the tanks of these prior art machines is used to hold a base cleaning fluid, such as water, into which concentrated cleaning chemicals may be injected to create a cleaning solution. Thereafter, the cleaning solution may be pumped, via an appropriate hose or tubing, to any number of cleaning implements for supply to the surface to be cleaned, such as a pressure spray gun, a cleaning wand, etc. The pumping operation can be performed at either a relatively high or low pressure, depending upon the cleaning application and the fluid pump employed in the machine. The cleaning solution may be worked into the surface to be cleaned to release and then entrain dirt and debris deposited on the surface being cleaned. Next, dirty cleaning solution can be vacuumed, again via an appropriate vacuum hose, into the second tank, generally referred to as a recovery tank. Finally, a blower motor can supply pressurized air, typically through the vacuum hose, to dry the now cleaned surface.
Obviously, the use of one vacuum/blower motor and related tube creates a cleanliness problem similar to the problems created by use of a mop and bucket. Contaminants that are vacuumed through the hose and motor may become stuck to the motor and hose inner walls, etc. When that same equipment is used to blow dry a surface, the contaminants may become dislodged from the hose and motor and be deposited back onto the cleaned surface. For this reason, known prior art systems often facilitate spreading of germs and other contaminants. These problems were somewhat addressed by providing a surface cleaning machine having separate blower motor and vacuum motor assemblies. Such a cleaning machine is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,425,958 to Giddings et al., which is fully incorporated herein by reference. While these later surface cleaning machines have advanced beyond the single blower and vacuum motor cleaning approach, they still have significant shortcomings.
One shortcoming is the manner in which a cleaning solution is created. The prior art devices do not provide for one of multiple concentrated cleaning chemicals to be easily added to a base fluid (e.g., water) or to properly provide precise amounts of desired chemicals to the base fluid to create a desired cleaning solution. Further, these prior art devices add concentrated cleaning chemicals to a base fluid through a process of injection, which can create unwanted pressures in the overall system, potentially causing not only system failure, but hazards to system users. Use of injectors also adds componentry to the equipment, thereby increasing both cost and weight of the equipment.
A second shortcoming of the known devices is the manner in which concentrated cleaning chemicals are stored upon those machines. Known cleaning machines allow receptacles of concentrated cleaning chemicals to be placed upon the cleaning machine in a completely unsecured and unprotected fashion. The cleaning chemicals can thus be stolen or tampered with, or the cleaning chemical receptacle may easily be damaged or spilled. Obviously, any of these situations is not desired and is potentially very dangerous not only to the public at large, but also to the user of the equipment.
A third shortcoming of known cleaning machinery relates to the blower used to dry and/or clean, etc., a surface. Prior art blowers are fixedly secured or otherwise incorporated into cleaning machinery. Accordingly, use of these blowers is limited to the general location of that machinery and generally may not be used if other componentry is in use, such as the vacuum assembly. Obviously, hoses can be used to extend blower reach, but such hoses are expensive, utilize limited storage space, add weight to the overall machine and generally decrease the effectiveness of the blower.
A further shortcoming of known prior art devices is that they do not provide a ergonomically efficient or easily regulatable system for applying a pressurized cleaning solution to a surface. It is often desirable or necessary when cleaning a surface to apply a cleaning solution to the surface with force. Such is accomplished by known machines through use of a spray gun which uses pressurized cleaning or other solution. However, in these prior art devices, the pressure at which the cleaning solution is supplied to the gun is not easily regulatable throughout a range of pressures and certainly not regulatable at the gun itself. Moreover, prior art spray guns do not include attachments, such as a lance wand adapted to provide comfortable use of the gun in at least several typical surface cleaning applications. Instead, ergonomically unsound lance wands are used, which tend to fatigue the equipment user more readily than is necessary or desired.
Another drawback of known prior art cleaning machines is the use of vacuum hoses that need to be wound and stored within the machine. Use of such hoses not only monopolizes space, which is in short supply on a compact cleaning machine, but also wastes operator time. Accordingly, there is a need to develop and incorporate into compact cleaning machines a vacuum hose which need not be wound, i.e., self-retracting, for purposes of storage.
Another drawback of known cleaning machines relates to the vacuum and solution extension wand, which may be used with the machinery and into which various cleaning tools may be attached. Such tools include: a squeegee for recovering spent cleaning solution from a hard floor; a dry pickup for recovering dirt and debris (i.e., traditional vacuuming application) from both hard and soft floors; a carpet sprayer and extractor tool for applying and recovering cleaning solution; and a grout tool for providing cleaning solution to a grouted hard floor or similar surface via specialized pressure jets and a brush and vacuum assembly to complete the cleaning process, etc. Unfortunately, these prior art wands do not facilitate quick and easy removal and replacement of all available tools which is obviously problematic for the user of such equipment.
There is also a need for an improved grout tool for use with prior art cleaning machines. Known grout tools do not provide adequate adjustability or positioning of a cleaning solution spray jet. Also, reliance on a single jet, as opposed to multiple jets, minimizes the productivity and effectiveness of the tool. Due to these shortcomings, known tools do not adequately clean soiled grouted surfaces.
Another problem with known cleaning machines is the failure to provide a work station environment, including poor placement of machine controls, tools and hoses. In such machines, the controls for activating or adjusting pumps, motors, valves, injectors, etc., are located in a position that is inconvenient for a user. In these machines, tools are also scattered around the machine, i.e., they are not concentrated in any particular area of the machine. Moreover, tools which come into contact with fluid are often stored on prior art machines in such a way as to facilitate dripping of fluids back onto a clean surface. Obviously, this is not advantageous. Thus, there is a need to provide a cleaning machine that provides a work station environment, including placing the tools and controls in a position on the device that is convenient for use by the operator when the machine is in use. Such ergonomically friendly placement of controls, tools and hoses will not only facilitate usability of the machine, but will also increase productivity of the user of that machine.
Finally, known cleaning machines do not provide adequate onboard storage for carrying needed cleaning supplies, tools, etc. Likewise, known machines do not provide a flexible approach to adding storage facilities for trash and the like when the need for such arises. Machinery that addresses these issues is therefore needed.